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"That usually requires following someone."

Alex pushed himself upright, rubbing one hand across his back. "I saw you leaving Residential."

"So you followed me."

"I caught up with you."

"That's following."

"I feel like there's a technical distinction here."

"There isn't."

The anger sharpened faster than I expected. It wasn't really about Alex putting his hand on my arm anymore, and by the way his humor faded, he'd worked that out too.

I folded my arms. "Was all of that in the kitchen bullshit?"

He frowned. "What?"

"You can leave whenever you want. You don't need permission. Nobody decides for you." I gestured at the forest around us. "Corian tells me I can go wherever I want, and the first time I leave the house one of you follows me into the forest."

"I wasn't sent after you."

"How am I supposed to know that?"

The question landed harder than I meant it to.

Alex stopped moving.

Ashter came back to my side and pressed against my leg, the glow beneath his chest dimming.

"I wasn't sent," Alex said again, quieter this time. "Corian doesn't know I'm here. None of them do."

I narrowed my eyes. "That's not reassuring."

"It wasn't meant to be."

That sounded almost like Corian.

I wasn't ready to let it go yet. "You still followed me. Whatever you call it."

"I know."

"That's not nothing, Alex."

"I know that too." He didn't try to argue his way out of it, which took some of the edge off wanting to keep arguing.

Alex got to his feet slowly, brushing leaves off the back of his pants before deciding the rest could stay there. "I saw you walking out on your own and thought I'd come with you."

"Why?"

He looked genuinely confused by the question. "Because I wanted to."

That answer irritated me simply because I didn't know what to do with it.

"You've known me for a few hours."

"Exactly."